U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,502 issued to G. T. Dupre and T. M. DeMarco and assigned to the same assignee herein, collector and conveying apparatus for use in foundries and other manufacturing or service facilities. The aforementioned patent describes a centrifugal or cyclone separator for removing the heaviest material; a linear separator stage for accelerating the lighter particulate material downwardly through an orifice into an elongated chamber for separation and collection of the lighter particulate material and enabling the airstream to exit the chamber through the orifice; and an air filter stage including a filter element receiving the exiting airstream from the chamber for removing the lightest of the particulate material. Reference may be made to the aforementioned patent for a more complete description of the apparatus and the operation thereof.
While the prior separator apparatus is remarkably compact, lightweight and portable for the variety of particle collecting, separating, and conveying uses to which it has been applied, it has been desired to provide an even more compact and portable collector apparatus which can still efficiently perform in a manner equivalent to that of the prior unit.